back to article MacOS wakes to a bright Catalina sunrise – and broken Adobe apps

Apple fanbois were all a-quiver this morning as macOS Catalina made its presence felt by breaking chunks of Adobe's software. The GM (or Golden Master) dropped last week, and the final release turned up last night in the form of macOS Catalina 10.15. We noted that Apple's new OS was chock-full of security fixes but warned …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It is not as if Adobe has not had good notice

    of the 32-bit support in MacOS going away.

    Yet they are still releasing software that contains 32-bit compontents.

    On my MacBook Pro....

    AAM Updates Manager - dated 20-Feb-2019

    Adobe Application Manager - 10-Aug-2019

    Lightroom DynamicLinkManager - 13-Aug-2019

    Lightroom QT-32 Server - 13-Aug-2019

    Updater Startup Utility 20-02-2019

    Adobe sucks big time.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Devil

      Re: It is not as if Adobe has not had good notice

      You know, having to count all those money coming from subscriptions, you really have no time to update the application code....

      Wasn't the rationale of subscriptions to have up-to-date and improved code continuously?

    2. Hans 1
      Facepalm

      Re: It is not as if Adobe has not had good notice

      Flash, what did you expect ?

      1. Scott 53

        Re: It is not as if Adobe has not had good notice

        Flash, ah ahhhh, what did you expect?

        FTFY

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It is not as if Adobe has not had good notice

      Why release a 64 bit version when they can make people who bought those things in early 2019 pay for an upgrade in late 2019? Adobe has a captive audience, and acts like it.

    4. coconuthead

      Re: It is not as if Adobe has not had good notice

      What is even more bizarre is that Adobe, in their online customer support forums, swear this does not matter:

      https://community.adobe.com/t5/Get-Started/Adobe-Creative-Cloud-on-macOS-10-14-3-installs-32-bit/td-p/10303450

      Are Adobe simply wrong, and the installations will fail in 30 days when the licenses cannot refresh? Or are they installing 32-bit cruft, that is never run, on new installations? I see the same 32 bit executables listed by Apple's System Information utility, on a system that has never had the pre-CC Adobe software installed. That's consistent with a poster in the above-linked thread who did a fresh installation two days ago and still sees 32 bit software.

    5. Karl Austin

      Yup

      Pretty much every 32bit app listed on my Mac is an Adobe component and all my Adobe stuff is up to date.

    6. Muscleguy

      Re: It is not as if Adobe has not had good notice

      I ditched Acrobat Reader on my Mac over a decade ago now when an update would not install unless I updated my ancient, barely working, copies of PS and Illustrator. Preview works perfectly well so who needs it anyway?

      As for endless Flash updates requiring me to quit the browser, hell is too good for them. Cycling through purgatory and hell so they get a sniff of paradise before being plunged into the fires again for them.

  2. Mephistro
    WTF?

    I'd love to know the rationale...

    ...behind this decision by Apple. I mean even Microsoft was able to keep compatibility with 32 bits apps, FFS!

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: I'd love to know the rationale...

      Less to maintain is the main reason. Means fixing fewer bugs twice. But also, with the move to turn the Mac into a glorified I-Pad, easier for cross-compiling.

      Apple knows it can force people to migrate over time, even if they hold out a for year or two. Last year SWMBO's MacBook Pro went out of mainstream support.

      1. chivo243 Silver badge

        Re: I'd love to know the rationale...

        @Charlie Clark

        "Apple knows it can force people to migrate over time"

        It's the MacOS Classic vs OS X (or the artist currently known as macOS) scenario all over again, rinse, repeat... I think the world got over losing Classic 9.2, they'll get over losing 32bit apps.

        As mentioned above, Adobe knew for a long time that Apple is fleeing 32bitsville, and not looking back.

        1. Zolko Silver badge

          Re: I'd love to know the rationale...

          "It's the MacOS Classic vs OS X (or the artist currently known as macOS) scenario all over again"

          no, it's not: there were technical good reasons to go from Classic to OS-X, as well as from PowerPC to Intel. There was a loss and a gain, and the gain was superior to the loss so people moved along.

          What is the technical reason to drop support for 32-bit ? What do they (Apple) or their customers gain by that loss (of 32-bit) ? I can only see 2 reasons, and both are bad: laziness from Apple, and forced-update for their partners (like Adobe).

          The customers don't gain anything by that. So Apple will probably force-update their customers to 10.15 as did Microsoft for Windows 10: bad omens.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: I'd love to know the rationale...

            @ Zolko

            I have run Macs for over 30 years. (Yes, I am an old fart). I cannot remember Apple ever doing a "forced" update. Though, no doubt, I will now be proven wrong.

            Cheers… Ishy

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'd love to know the rationale...

      Think people complained about MS because it dropped 16-bit support in 64 bit versions - and only because AMD dropped the Virtual-86 mode in 64 bit mode (and Intel did the same). Most Appleboys will defend this move...

      1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: I'd love to know the rationale...

        Yes me being one of them, the compatibility of Windows running older software is something that is a bonus (Although in most cases with Unix and Linux software can be recompiled from source if they fail to run and any issues rectified there and then, again this is a bonus as in many cases with Windows software the source code may have been long lost, such as Gunman Chronicals).

        However most of the time community patches (You are awesome!) have meant you can grab a new installer or the publisher has updated meaning they work on the current version of Windows 10. Some have remade games such as Monkey Island which I fully support.

    3. pairof9s

      Re: I'd love to know the rationale...

      Keep in mind that Apple implemented dual 64- and 32-bit support for nearly the last 15 years since 2005 (Tiger). I'd venture to say Microsoft wasn't that accommodating. If it takes that much time for you to transition your apps/computer to 64-bit, I'd say stick with your current Pentium and Photoshop 4.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Apple only sold 32 bit Macs for ONE YEAR

      Way back in 2006. Had they waited one more year to go Intel they probably would have gone 64 bit only from day one and avoided this. They've supported both 32 and 64 bit applications side by side for over a decade.

      I'm just astonished to hear that companies like Adobe are still releasing 32 bit only software in 2019. Apple made all developers and users aware of this 64 bit only transition for years, yet it still seems to have caught people off guard. They did a similar transition with iOS 11 two years ago and it caused much less trouble despite iOS being 32 bit only much more recently than macOS.

      As for why you go 64 bit only, it simplifies support having only one version of all the system libraries to maintain - and only one version is loaded into RAM (that's a bigger deal for phones than PCs, of course, but there are a lot more libraries on a PC and they are a lot bigger than on a phone)

      Perhaps part of it is that having to support only 64 bit will make porting easier for devs as and OS emulation of x86 on future 64 bit only ARM based Macs easier. If rumors are true and those are coming next year, getting everyone on 64 bit ahead of time makes sense.

      1. rsole

        Re: Apple only sold 32 bit Macs for ONE YEAR

        It's more accurate to say they only sold Intel based 32bit Macs for around a year. Many older PowerPC and Motorola Macs were 32bit.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Apple only sold 32 bit Macs for ONE YEAR

          Yep sorry left out the 'x86' part of the title, thanks!

        2. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

          Re: Apple only sold 32 bit Macs for ONE YEAR

          The IBM PowerPC 970, sold by Apple as the "G5", was a 64-bit CPU, and had limited OS support from MacOS 10.4 onwards. (Mainly the "make it run without crashing" kind of support, but there were some optimisations to use the 64-bit ALU)

          The real reason Apple is dumping 32-bit is because it allows them to stop maintaining the "Carbon" API, and with it the last remnants of the original Mac Toolbox (yes, some of the Toolbox sources were ported straight into Carbon). There's very little cost in keeping a second architecture tested if you're testing the APIs already on another architecture: compilers are very, very good these days, and most functions will compile and run fine on any kind of modern CPU.

          Adobe hopes that this will force people onto a subscription. I Personally, when I faced this choice (moved from Mac to Windows, and thus lost access to my Illustrator CS6 licence), I bough Affinity Designer instead. It's not as complete as Illustrator, but for all but the most demanding print work, it runs much faster, and it only costs seventy quid, Mac or PC.

    5. Cuddles

      Re: I'd love to know the rationale...

      "...behind this decision by Apple. I mean even Microsoft was able to keep compatibility with 32 bits apps, FFS!"

      People like Microsoft because they keep tons of legacy code in their OS in order to keep backwards compatibility with programs written 30+ years ago. People like Apple because they don't. Realistically, it's difficult to argue that either is objectively better. If you rely on old code, MS is obviously the better choice. If you don't, there are clear benefits from avoiding all the legacy bloat and associated bugs and quirks that come with it.

      The only company really at fault here is Adobe, who might be cynically trying to push people into paying them even more, except they didn't even manage to get the new versions working properly.

  3. Jou (Mxyzptlk) Silver badge

    Groundhog Day for Apple...

    Just compare: Win10 64 bit, 1903, latest updates, fast CPU, with hyper-v active. I can still run Delta Force from 1998 directly - the non GOG version. I can still run Diablo and Starcraft from 1996 directly. Or Adobe Photoshop 5.0. And many other old 32 Bit Windows programs and games, as long as they are somewhat clean coded. Like the labyrinth screensaver von Windows 98 in 8k https://youtu.be/u_n2Qjcsq0E , or NFS-Porsche in 4k (8k possible) https://youtu.be/pp8RlWw5w3M.

    We are annoyed by those Windows problems, but Mac problems are superior.

    1. Raphael

      Re: Groundhog Day for Apple...

      My dad is a little upset his 20 year old copy of Corel Wordperfect 8 seems to have stopped working on Win10 1903.

      (the save throws a missing dll error)

  4. mark l 2 Silver badge

    I am not surprised that a lot of Adobe software has not been fixed to remove the 32bit code, after all this is from the same people that brought you the crappy bloated insecure software that is Flash and Acrobat reader.

    1. AIBailey

      Merge that with the people that brought you the crappy bloated insecure software that was QuickTime and it's a recipe for disaster.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Urgh, quicktime. I still have to use that player on pc to view work files using an esoteric codec that isn't supported by any other player. I will never understand why it takes 4-5 seconds to start, and has always been this way for 20 years, no matter how fast cpus/hdds get. Almost like they deliberately gimped it for Windows by adding a timer to delay it starting up. They wouldn't do that, would they? Hmmmmmm

    2. Zolko Silver badge

      Adobe ?

      "Adobe software [...] brought you the crappy bloated insecure software that is Flash and Acrobat reader"

      Flash was invented by Macromedia (that Adobe bought, and it was for their cross-platform development systems, not for Flash) and PDF is a really good invention by Adobe ... even though, technically, PDF is mostly a compressed PostScript ... that was also really great and also invented by Adobe.

      I know it's all trendy to throw mud at Adobe, but some of it is not deserved.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    To be fair...

    I've (so far) upgraded one of my compatible systems (others are over 10 years old, so no expectations there!) without any issues.

    I was warned that one of my apps would not work and given the option not to upgrade. I knew there was a beta version I could use with 64-bit support, so went ahead anyway.

    Not had any issues with current (as in, still supported) software working as expected (once I remembered that httpd.conf would have reverted to a clean copy).

    A few new security warnings have popped up when opening some apps, but they've not need anything more than a quick click to confirm that the action is expected and do not appear again.

    I agree that it's not nice when old stuff stops working, but there does come a time when legacy software has to be pruned so that development and support activities can be focused more efficiently - especially when the legacy layers are likely to have significantly worse security attributes (due to outdated design, not defects).

    OSX has been warning for years that 32-bit will not be supported forever, so anyone running a business has had plenty to time to plan for the change. Not so nice for "casual" users / consumers who splashed out for professional software (often with no plans / need to upgrade), especially when the only option is to then to switch to pay-to-use (I could do with a copy of Adobe InDesign to play with from time-to-time, but I'm not willing to pay a monthly fee when there's no guarantee that I'll have time to use it that month).

    1. Stork Silver badge

      Re: To be fair...

      Perhaps it is time for the casual user to look at Capture One and Affinity Photo

      1. Ian 55

        Re: To be fair...

        They'll discover one is much cheaper than the other, especially when Serif have a sale.

    2. LewisRage

      Re: To be fair...

      "I could do with a copy of Adobe InDesign to play with from time-to-time, but I'm not willing to pay a monthly fee when there's no guarantee that I'll have time to use it that month"

      Do adobe allow you just pay ~£20 for a single months worth of access? I've always thought that, as long as there's nothing enforcing minimum year terms or whatever, that a months use of the latest pro standard software for that kind of money is actually pretty reasonable.

      1. Snapper

        Re: To be fair...

        If you stop paying you can't open your files. Tough if you have to go back and change something innit?

        Try the 30-day free trial of Affinity's Publisher (and Designer and Photo). Less that £50 each, no subscription and able to open and save to Adobe file format. Doing cut-outs in Photo is a dream compared to the over-stuffed Photoshop.

        Affinity files are the same file format between all three apps, so you can be working on a document and simply switch apps without having to open the document again. 21st century computing courtesy of a UK company.

        Yes, I'm a fan.

  6. Tessier-Ashpool

    'Trash' is gone

    Hurrah. The menu option now says "Move to Bin" when you want to delete something. That's worth upgrading alone.

    1. Not also known as SC

      Re: 'Trash' is gone

      Does any one know if this is the case for all English language variants or just something special for those of us who speak non US English?

      1. Blake St. Claire

        Re: 'Trash' is gone

        It still says "Move to Trash" for me.

      2. Belperite

        Re: 'Trash' is gone

        "Bin" for my UK English installation.

        1. David 132 Silver badge
          Happy

          Re: 'Trash' is gone

          "The Pipperator", according to my UK English (Obscure Radio 4 Comedy) locale.

      3. coconuthead

        Re: 'Trash' is gone

        macOS changed "Trash" to "Bin" for Australian English in Mojave. I assume this was a test for the larger UK market. It also supported Brtish/Commonwealth spelling in the UI, e.g. "Favourites" instead of the US "Favorites".

    2. Overcharged Aussie

      Re: 'Trash' is gone

      Mojave on my non US systems say "Move to Bin"

      I am in Australia and running the English (Australia) language/region.

    3. attackcat

      Re: 'Trash' is gone

      My first one, a PowerBook 5300, had a wastebasket.

  7. Freddellmeister

    MacOS started pretty fresh with x86 back in 2006, hence it is a relatively new OS to begin with. Dropping 32 bit application support is really only a cost saving measure which should not be tolerated by Mac users. I would complain..

    1. jimjamyahauk

      Think you'll find Mac OS X on X86 is actually quite old, in the context that NEXTStep and OPENBSD it was based on was already complied for x86 way back.

      Dropping 32-bit support has long been coming, and whilst perhaps may have some cost-saving is the usual apple way of moving stuff forward for future benefit.... mainly because it has a smaller. more tightly integrated OS / Hardware offering and ecosystem. Think the original iMac, introducing USB and removing the floppy drive... contentious at the time... useful and appropriate in the long-term.

      1. Blake St. Claire

        > Mac OS X on X86 is actually quite old, in the context that NEXTStep and OPENBSD

        > it was based on

        May I borrow your Reality Distortion Field?

        The NeXT* used an M68040 cpu and was first released in 1988. DeRaadt didn't fork OpenBSD* until 1995.

        NeXTSTEP* was "based on Unix", and specifically used the Mach (monolithic) kernel. Much has been said about the NeXTSTEP and Mac OS X userland; one study of the OS X RCS ID strings compiled into everything showed that – at that point in time – it was a mix of all the BSDs, and I'd wager that's still true.

        No reason to make stuff up. It's all there in Wikipedia – among other places – for anyone to see.

        *Note the correct capitalization. Please hand in your geek card at reception desk on your way out of the building.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          WTF?

          @Blake St. Claire

          Are you absolutely sure that everything on Wikipedia is correct?

          Cheers… Ishy

  8. fidodogbreath

    Maker breaker

    The word in the music production community is to hold off on Catalina.

    One problem is that hardware devices for recording (such as multi-track interfaces) have a very long life cycle by tech standards. Many of them predate class compliance, and thus require drivers; so, obvious concerns there.

    The other big problem is that production using digital audio workstation (DAW) software relies on an amalgam of first- and third-party plug-ins to handle critical tasks such as EQ, dynamics processing, effects, virtual instruments, etc. Most users have a carefully-curated library of plug-ins from a variety of small/niche developers that meet their artistic and technical needs. One 32-bit library dependency in a critical plug-in can bring a workflow crashing down. There's also the problem of accessing legacy projects that were mixed and mastered using 32-bit software.

    Some of these issues will be solved over time, others will not. No doubt some hardware manufacturers and software devs will think, "hmmm, make a profitable new sale or spend money to update old stuff?" and declare their old products to be incompatible with Catalina.

    That said -- Windows 10's forced updates (and their accompanying "reset everything to Redmond defaults" behavior) make that platform challenging to deal with as well. MacOS Mojave will get security patches for a couple of more years, so at least Apple isn't ramming Catalina down everyone's throat like you-know-who.

    1. O RLY

      Re: Maker breaker

      While I agree for the most part, Apple sure would like to force Catalina down punters' throats. I have not yet found a way to make Mojave's System Preferences ignore the Catalina update, so there's an incessant and insistent red "1" sitting in the dock. Or at least there was until I removed System Preferences from the dock.

      1. fidodogbreath

        Re: Maker breaker

        sudo softwareupdate --ignore "macOS Catalina"

        Reversed by:

        sudo softwareupdate --reset-ignored

        Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250711218

        NOTE: At work, so I haven't been able to try this yet myself.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. O RLY

          Re: Maker breaker

          Thanks!

          This does work to remove the update from the tool, but the red "1" remains on the Dock icon.

          It appears that can be removed by

          'defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AttentionPrefBundleIDs 0'

          But that hides all badge alerts for future updates or issues that arise in System Preferences, so not a perfect fix.

  9. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    A real crabapple...

  10. This post has been deleted by its author

  11. LeahroyNake

    Subscription servers

    'Things could be worse. In order to comply with Executive order 13884 (PDF), Adobe is yanking all services, paid and free, from Venezuela. Customers have until 28 October to download any content before the axe comes down.'

    If people in Venezuela have paid for a perpetual licence I'm guessing it will keep working. Those paying a subscription are screwed.... Unless they use a VPN to hide their location. I can see a large rise in pirate Adobe SW, can't really blame them if they decide to go down that route after getting constantly shafted.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: Subscription servers

      It should be a warning to anyone anywhere relying on subscription services.

  12. Blake St. Claire

    Shared volumes from my Airport Extreme

    Seem to mount instantly, and stay mounted. Finally.

    Which would be great except for the fact that Apple is no longer in the WiFi Access Point business, and when this Airport inevitably dies I'll have to find something else to serve what's on those drives.

  13. Micky Nozawa

    This is one of the reasons why I have not updated macOS yet.

    I typically wait for a couple of weeks before any OS upgrade in case there are any issues that may affect me.

  14. IGotOut Silver badge

    Executive tweet

    Hope those users in Turkey are frantically backing up and looking for alternatives, your next on the incoherant meglomaniac's list.

    1. Francis Boyle Silver badge

      Nah

      Trump has never seen a wannabe dictator he didn't like so the Turks are safe for the moment. The Kurds on the other hand. . .will have more pressing issues to deal with than whether their software keeps working.

      1. Stork Silver badge

        Re: Nah

        You don't classify Maduro as wannabe dictator?

        1. midcapwarrior

          Re: Nah

          Nope, he's a registered dictator.

          Passed his certification test.

  15. David 47

    Adobe Support

    I have an Adobe Lightroom perpetual license.

    If you had it installed on Mojave and upgraded to Lightroom, it would work.

    However, i committed the cardinal sin of installing a fresh Catalina copy and it wouldn't let me install Lightroom anymore !!

    The app is apparently 64 bit but the installer is 32 bit.

    Anyway, here begins my ordeal with support. Having stated the above, the drones tried redirecting me to download the 32bit copy twice.

    One was cheeky enough to suggest that i use Adobe forums for answers (seriously?) and finally one slightly sensible drone gave me the dreaded answer "Its currently not supported. We will let you know once it is. Meanwhile, <link> is where you can buy Creative Cloud...."

    Whatever happened to agile development ?

    Shame that Adobe and Apple cant get their act right.

    1. coconuthead

      Re: Adobe Support

      Don't blame Apple for this one. It's been possible to ship "universal binaries" which contain both 32 and 64 bit code since Snow Leopard, ten years ago (which one ran depended on your processor). Apple have been hinting and outright telling developers for years to make the move to 64 bit, and the current version of their compiler suite can't even compile to 32 bit any more.

  16. Mark 15

    Forget Adobe, use Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher

    I have long since pulled out all my hair dealing with Adobe. The frustration of paying a ransom every year and then having all that wiped out by the change to a subscription was just too much. I had a conversation with Adobe following our services suddenly becoming "unregistered". When asked where we might have bought this obviously hooky software, I replied "Oh, at adobe.com, yes in your shop". At that point, we were paying in excess of £1,000 per suite. Good riddance.

    We now use Serif's Affinity products and have done from the day they were released. A fraction of the cost, nicer to use, and going on my first real need for support just last week, excellent support too.

    Now I just need to find a solution for my backup and my 'Lifetime licensed' Teamviewer. (32 bit)!

    1. Ivan Headache

      Re: Forget Adobe, use Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher

      I've been looking to move and have indeed bought the Affinity apps.

      I'm rather impressed.

      But....

      I want all my images marked with copyright information, along with who, what, when and where.

      The Affinity apps have no equivalent to Photoshop's 'File Info' panel.

      Apparently there are third party apps that would allow me to do this - but at what cost to my work-flow?

      That said I'm using CS3 on a 10.6.8 Mac Pro. If it ain't broke I see no reason to change it.

  17. Ian 55

    WINE and Steam..

    .. were two big reasons for the upset when Ubuntu proposed dropping 32-bit support. They ended up promising to keep enough to keep those two running.

    Do Apple users not run the occasional Windows program or play many games then?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: WINE and Steam..

      @Ian 55

      Yes. We use dual boot to run Windows when we play games, and Parallels for running other software.

      Cheers… Ishy

  18. Zebad

    For Adobe 'classic' users, this is like...

    ... having bought a car (=Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, etc) five years ago, from the main dealer of a major manufacturer (=Adobe) at full price.

    The car requires a special oil to run (=32 bit support) for some parts of the car, but the supplier of this oil (Apple) was always planning to remove it from sale in future, and advertised this well in advance - but no problem, it's relatively easy to convert the car to avoid this requirement.

    Support for these 'classic' cars was provided until a couple of years ago, but they never bothered applying the conversion, as they have been working exclusively on their new fleet of lease cars.

    Today, our old paid-for cars (some only two years old) will stop working. The main dealer says "We're not fixing it because 'ooh we have to move wit the times or some such platitude' Take that car down the scrappy and lease one of our shiny new cars, for many pennies. Thanks for your business, and **** you."

    Most reasonable people would be happy trade-in their old car for a new one (i.e. pay a one-off price for the latest version of standalone Lightroom or whatever), but this is not an option because of 'inane platitude'='we don't make as much money that way'. They have royally screwed us over.

    Nice work Adobe!

  19. Ian Joyner Bronze badge

    More patronising guff

    "Apple fanbois were all a-quiver this morning" – just patronising guff from register. Many females use Mac as well. Most people use Apple because they appreciate good design and devices that work well – not because they are mindless 'fanboys'.

    1. herman

      Re: More patronising guff

      No worries - the poor Register droids are just jealous.

    2. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

      Re: More patronising guff

      I have always considered "fanbois" to be the gender neutral collective of "fanboys", "fangirls" and others. Hence the different spellings.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Devil

      "Many females use Mac as well"

      Sure. But in my experience none of them are fanatic about their systems like boys are.

  20. TomG

    Come on people, you can do better than this. I had to read 7 comments before I read one that mentioned Windows, and it was favorable to Windows. BTW, I did not see any favorable comments on Linux. People, get with the program.

    1. fidodogbreath

      People, get with the program.

      Maybe the "Windows Basher" and "Linux Booster" apps are 32-bit.

  21. Portlandia vermite

    Left behind and loving it

    I am writing this on a 201- 17" MacBook Pro (DuoCore) running OSX 10.6.8. I suffered MacOS updates until finally saying 'screw this' as the updates broke my Office 2011, Adobe CS, Sibelius music notation, ProTools LE, and a number of smaller, very useful programs. Replacing all this was out of the question for this retiree, so I went back to the last installation disc I possessed and have been running like this for about two years now.

    Only downside so far is the inability to stream some video. I have to use an outated version of Firefox (48.0.2) and consequently an outdated version of Flash. I do have Mohave loaded as an optional boot, but I have never really needed to go there. I keep a cheap PC laptop handy if I need to look at something the Mac won't load.

    The huge plus side is the inability to stream some video. No autoplay crap (although embedded GIFs still show). I run AdBlocker, but the old OS still helps to eliminate 100% of ads on my computer (sorry, El Reg). I also still have those nice bouncing icons on a magnifying dock, a prettier Gallery mode (then Cover Flow) in Finder (I don't do videos so don't need the new view), and, really, a better experience, since Apple now designs for its iStuff leaving computer faithful behind.

    Won't leave this until dead or someone comes up with a 17" laptop (glorious thing!) running Linux that supports legacy Mac software.

  22. Marco van de Voort

    readonly FS

    From what I hear it is not just 32-bit that kills old software, but also making nearly everything in the filesystem readonly.

  23. macjules
    Unhappy

    Not just Adobe

    Docker, Vagrant and VirtualBox all now have problems as Apple have put User data and System data into separate volumes (System is a read-only). This means that certain NFS requirements can not be met in the usual /etc/hosts file, as detailed here.

  24. BGatez

    subscription model = Beta testing

    If you're fortunate it's Beta testing, sometimes not even. OTOH it's always an opportunity to suck up your cash,

  25. JOHNCANDT

    Upgrading

    I rather foolishly clicked to upgrade from Mojave to Catalina without reading all the stuff i should have read , now my copies of Photoshop , Adobe Bridge , Word and a few others don't work , no problem thought i i will uninstall it and reinstall Mojave... slight problem my back up external drive won't open !!! i can of course delete Catalina and reinstall Mojave without a back up copy but that won't reinstall my Adobe apps .. so i pose this question , if i have a back up copy of Catalina which contains my Adobe apps (i do have it and yes the apps are there ) is it possible to wipe the hard drive reinstall Mojave then down load just the Adobe apps from the back up copy of Catalina ? if so how difficult would it be if its at all possible, just found out now none of my Canon photo editing stuff works either !!!m HELP !!!!!

  26. Zorba
    FAIL

    I'm out.

    Apple breaks everything with every release, dumbs down (or removes entirely) useful software (I'm looking at YOU, "Photos" vs iPhoto as but one example), and tries to turn my expensive computer into a crippled cell phone. We won't even bother to discuss the stupid religious aspects such as the one button mice that everyone threw away for decades nor the lack of .WEBP support. I'm done, I'm out. Moving to strictly open source and cross platform software. I realize not everyone has that luxury, but for those who do, I advise it. The one thing I'll say for Microsoft is their backwards compatibility record is light years above and beyond Apple's.

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